Miklb's Mindless Ramblings

In case you missed it, Katrina Vanden Hueval and Ann Coulter were part of Larry King’s panel discussing the DeLay indictment. However, the difference is those two were in the studio with King, whereas the others where off-studio cameras. As usual, Coulter had to try and get the last word, wouldn’t answer King’s questions (I’ll give it to the old softy, he sorta tried to ask the hard questions), and basically came across as her lunatic self. Vanden Hueval surprised me when she even joined the mantra of “culture of corruption”. Ultimately, it was a matter of two diametrically opposed political commentators, and nothing new was added. But at times, it looked like there could be a cat fight.

As some who’ve read here before, you know I’ve looked forward to this day for some time. The only thing I look forward to more now is the day Tom DeLay is found guilty of at least some of his crimes against this country. To me, he’s committed treason. He’s cheated and lied to the American people, and circumvented the law, which thereby prevented the people of Texas from rightly electing their officials. But this is all fairly main stream news. What I’ve found more interesting is the mantra the democratic party line is using in the recent criminal charges/investigations…”culture of corruption”. When election time rolls around in ‘06, expect that phrase to be played out over and over. I think that will be the real “platform” for unseating the Republicans. I think it can be used in just about every situation from the appointment of Brown to FEMA to the gerrymandering issues in Texas.

Washington Post While the nation’s eyes have been focused on Rita, and Houston’s failure to properly coordinate evacuation traffic, another storm was brewing in Republican politics. Much in the manner that Martha Stewart was originally charged with insider trading, or something similar, Senator Bill Frist-R of Tennessee is being investigated by the Security Exchange Commission regarding sales of stock this past summer.
Well it appears that Mr Frist owned a fair amount of stock in a company originally founded by his father, and over the summer, Frist order the blind trust to sell the shares. Where the investigation comes in is the fact that soon after the sale by Frist, poor earnings reports were issued, and the price of the stock dropped significantly from the high it was when Frist sold. There’s no indication that Frist’s family is completely divorced from the business, and there’s no indication that Frist didn’t know those in positions of power with the company.
It is quite hard for me to believe that Frist simply was the recipient of good luck, and that it was purely a coincidence. For someone who’s been discussed as a potential Presidential nominee, and currently the Senate majority leader, even the hint of misappropriateness will linger, and a discovery of wrong doing will not only ruin his political career, it will go a long way of painting the current Republican party as one of double standards and, as Dean said “made their culture of corruption the norm”.

Ah, we knew it wouldn’t be long, but the Hammer has reared his ugly head, at the behest of the White House, I’m sure, to run interference. The lamb is being dressed…

Howl of the Wolf May be Heard Again in Northern Forest - National Wildlife FederationIn an attempt to once again circumvent the law, the Bush administration attempted to lump several subspecies of the Grey Wolf together to so as to take the NE Grey Wolf off the endangered list. Luckily, a judge didn’t see it that way, and ruled that there was no evidence that the research from several years ago was reversed.
In a related note, a similar case was ruled on on the West Coast regarding a species of salamander, in which the administration tried to lump several species together so as to remove them from the endangered species list.
One can only assimilate that the reason to remove these species is so development can infringe on the habitat of these endangered species. I’d like to know a little more about what kind of development that would be.